Welcome! See Italy (and more) through the eyes of an artist: American sculptor and painter Kelly Borsheim creates her life and art in Italy and shares her adventures in travel and art with you. Come on along, please and Visit her fine art work online at: www.BorsheimArts.com

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Wednesday, August 9, 2017

The last time I showed you a progress
image on my new bas-relief sculpture
project, “Wind and Wisteria,” was in
my post on 18 June, when I was still in a cast for a broken right wrist.I started the piece with my left hand.The cast was removed on 30 June, and I have
done a bit of work since then.

I asked my landlord and my neighbor to
lift the big board into my kitchen just before we got a few days of decent
[certainly better than nothing!] showers.This is how far I had gotten with my non-dominant hand.I wanted the piece more vertical so that I
could start developing it.

Bas-relief is not “puffy painting” as I
once thought before meeting Eugene Daub
and Vasily Fedorouk.It is compressed form.That is a HUGE difference.What I mean by “puffy painting” is possibly similar to quilt making…where one defines the boundary of a shape and then puts
stuffing inside of it.It is a look, but
it is not bas-relief sculpture.

Side lighting from kitchen door

Harsh top lighting, but you see the difference from above?

So, I prefer to create a bas-relief
sculpture with an overhead light that helps me to see where the material is in
relation to other parts.However, this
green plastilina [an oil-based clay]
does not seem to have enough oil in it to stick well to the wood board, and I
woke one morning to see that the boy’s face and broken away from the
composition and slid down.Luckily it
was not damaged much.I have since
developed the form more anyway.[You may
see in the close-up shape here that I still have work to do.For example, the lips have to be
refined.There is too much harsh light
outlining the lips.I need to fill-in
some placed with clay, soften shapes, and think of the form of the mouth
barrel.I hope to make the mouth more
kind and youthful.]

Clay absorbs much more light than metal
does.If something looks contrasty in
the clay, it will be so much worse in reflective metal!

Lately, I have been creating the individual
petals of the wisteria.It is past time
for the real blooms on my gate, although I have a few random flowers that are confused by the
watering and drought.Trying to
understand them as models, but I am also using images as references.Mamma
mia, what a lot of work!I find myself
intimidated wondering if I can create the airiness of wind blowing in dangling
petals in a thin sculpture.When I feel
this way, I often force myself to work and accept that it will go slowly as I
figure out how to do what I think I want.And another part of the day, I start a new project, because starting is
always fun, as one sees change and development move along quickly.I have learned that this is the only way I
can get through the hump of the tough times.

For the head of the wind, I am also
struggling.I am not sure that I am
capturing the idea that she is blowing, ie that SHE is creating the wind, or
she is the wind personified.And I chose
to make a composition that will be empty inside the shape, allowing the wall to
show through once hung. This means that
I have fewer things around her to show the effects of wind.Maybe not the smartest idea, compositionally
speaking? Piano, piano as they say too often in Italy, “slowly, slowly.”

"Rock Towers and Frogs" /Torri di sassi e Rane

I am taking orders only on
this work, in part because I have no storage space to create the bronze ahead
of time.But do not let that stop
you!Gardens are always
works-in-progress and quality takes time.A downpayment is all it takes to get the bronze started.Contact me if you would like to know more.

In the meantime, here are
more images of the finished bronze, as well as some of the work-in-progress
[WIP]

I also had written a new art
newsletter that I think I may have forgotten to post here on the blog.It shows you pictures of my crazy family and
an image or two from the wedding in late April in Florida.The wedding portrait I made to my sister Dani and her new husband Joe’s
specs was a hit with them… what a relief, what a challenge!

I hope your summer has been
going well.I move slower than usual
[which my mother told me that if I ever did that, people might bury me… hahah,
whoops!], but am making forward progress.Still in therapy for my broken wrist, and trying to take the time to
heal my knee properly so that I can get back to full-time art-making.

Thanks for hanging in here with
me.I hope to show you new work in
August!

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

How many friends does it take to help a
girl buy a car in a foreign country?Well, in my case, in Italy,
I would say more than a handful.I was
not really prepared to buy a car just yet.I mean, that I WAS, after having gotten my international driver’s
license when I was in the US and I gave myself three weeks to research and find
a car to buy [before the license went into effect] so that I could go to the
quarry and start carving a new stone sculpture.But after falling and breaking my wrist, the need for a car so soon
drove away.

Then it was suggested that I use my
healing time to at least start researching what I wanted.I asked on my Facebook page for much advice
from locals.That posting led to a
friend tagging me for an old car for sale in my area.It looked ok in the photos, one owner (a
90-year-old woman), less then 75 kilometers (which is pretty amazing,
especially if you change that into miles!), and decent looking tires [but bad
spare under the hood].

However, I was nervous and did not feel
ready yet.I did not respond to the ad
for about a week.In the meantime, I did
more research, vacillating about whether or not I really wanted to take action
now.I am still paying off my trip to
the US
after all and I cannot physically drive yet.But, hey, I might as well go see it and re-learn what to look for in a
car.

The man selling my future car met me at
the bus station in Montecatini Terme, a town perhaps 40 minutes by transport
from my home.But he was in a hurry and
I worried it was a scam.I sat in the
car, turned on the ignition, moved the gears around, but was unable to drive it
(time and ability).I took a few
photographs that I thought my helping friends could use.I asked where to put the oil into the engine,
as well as where to check it, but stupidly did not even take a look at the oil
myself.Sheesh, what was I
thinking?

This is only the second vehicle that I
have ever purchased myself.Before I got
married, I usually drove whatever old car my father had to give me.Once I got married, my husband made all the car
decisions, often surprising me with a new-to-us Volvo 240 when he deemed the
time was right.But after college and
before meeting “the man,” I moved to the big city of Austin, Texas,
and bought a 1979 GMC Dura Van.That was
in 1987.I paid $3,000 cash for it, with
a partial loan from my father that I paid off sooner than later. I had had a long-term dream to finish college,
get a dog, buy a van, and drive to Oregon.I did those things and in that order, coming
back to Texas
as an engaged woman.In 2015, I gifted
my van to a friend who does art restorations in Austin.I loved that vehicle!

Back to 2017 in Tuscany
(and single again): I returned to my new
hometown in the hills of Italy
via bus after my short visit with the 1998 white Fiat Panda.I had a conversation with my landlord [and
his brother, who recently replaced his old white Panda with another] and showed
him some of the images I took.Later
that evening he spoke on the phone with the seller and then me.Trustingly, I committed to buying the car that
night, but it was not for two more days that I returned to Montecatini Terme to do the title transfer and get driven
home.My landlord was there and looked
over the car [saw a weld in my future] and met the man he had spoken to a
couple of times by then.I was handed
the keys as the man and his friend drove off in a little Smart car.

I had bargained some, but gave all of my
remaining cash towards the new car.For
those curious, the title transfer cost me 370 euro in cash [since I have no
bank in Italy].Had the size of the motor been larger, the
fee would have been higher.That is more
than half of what I paid for the car itself!My landlord took these snapshots of me with my new vehicle.

I am still not driving. Although my
landlord and another neighbor helped me get an amazingly low quote on car
insurance for when I am ready, I am postponing buying insurance, hoping to sell some art first.But also, my right wrist is still not strong
enough.I could not even take off the
emergency brake!Another neighbor, who
really encouraged me to get a car and helped a lot in the research, came over
to take a look.He later drove it over
to his property: it is illegal to park a
car without insurance on a public road.So, the Panda is safe there and I can even see her from my windows.

I am still thinking of a design to paint
on her.I bought a small can of blue
paint for metal.As I told the man in
the hardware store, “I just bought an old white Fiat Panda.Everyone seems to have one.How will I ever find my car in the parking
lot?”I want a design that helps me
recognize my new baby, but not one that shouts, “Kelly just drove by.”You know, in case I do something stupid.[Oh, and the low insurance price came in part
because the agent will install a scatola nera [black box] in my car.It will know where I am driving [so it knows
the local speed limit] and monitor my driving habits.So, perhaps the first year, I will be
constantly taking an exam.And towards
the end of this year, I need to take the Italian driving class and exams and
earn my Italian driver’s license.So, I
get to feel like a teen all over again.Joy.

Ok, so here is one way that I hope to earn
that insurance.But really, anything I
still have in stock or even many of the products, such as my book about street
painting in Florence,
or shower curtains, pillows, a phone case, prints on metal, etc. would help me
while giving you something that I hope enriches your life… check out some of the
art products here:https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-kelly-borsheim.html

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Sometimes people tell me, “Wow, you are so
courageous to just pick up and move to Italy.” Well, first of all, that is not
exactly what happened, and it took me years to finally find a place to call
home and … whatever.I usually respond
with a confused look and a, “What?Italy
is not Afghanistan.And anyone with a
credit card can come to Italy.I am not
particularly special.”

Still, to live outside of the country you
were born in is not at all the same as visiting a foreign country.And thankfully, at least in my experiences,
there are many people, Italian and other expats alike, who really help
out.[I use the term ‘expat,’ which to
some is a bit controversial, to mean someone, like me, who chooses to live
outside her native country, but has not given up her citizenship in her native
land; versus an immigrant who either has given it up or has become a dual
citizen.]

It was in this context of neighbors
helping neighbors with health insurance issues that I found myself going again
near the hospital in Pescia, Italy, the nearest decent-sized town to where I
live.We were looking for a specific
office/person to help with my neighbors’ health-insurance, a tip from an
Italian neighbor.But this time, on the
walk down a somewhat familiar street, a rather plain old wooden door invited a look inside.I was surprised to see
frescos and a dramatic light emerging inside washing over the art.So, this was a small old church tucked into modern
surroundings.

Ever curious, but aware that we were in a
hurry to find this person, I quickly snapped some images and gazed up a bit to try
to understand what treasure we had discovered in this little city once famous
for its flower productions.

It is the Oratory of Saint Antonio Abate. There
was a date in the sign of 1210-1220, but I had too much glare on the laminated
sign and am unclear on what the date refers to.However, the organ at the back was constructed on 1853 by Nicomede
Agati.And the wooden sculpture [Umbrian-Tuscan sculptor of the late nineteenth century. XIII
Deposition of Christ, carved and painted wood], was affected by the great flood
in Florence of 1966.Well here is the
translation of part of the sign I photographed in the oratory:

“The part of the
Superintendence at the Galleries was mainly in the recovery of the famous
Romanesque wood group. It had been restored for the first time in 1943, albeit
with poor results because the technical means available at that time had failed
to block the process of infestation and disintegration of the wood, which was
for the second time hospitalized in the workshops of the Superintendence at the
Galleries Of Florence, had the misfortune to suffer on 4 Nov 1966 the flood
water damage.”

As for the fresco
around the altar, it seems to have been restored in 1975.Enjoy the snapshots!

Gadget

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About Me

"I am interested in the more personal moments of our lives – things we do not often share with other people, or at least, not knowingly so. I am also fascinated by the duality of our nature, especially the idea that two opposing concepts exist in a strange kind of balance. Our thoughts are expressed through our bodies. I use the elements of visual language to appeal to the senses of sight and touch while exploring these ideas, seeking the universal in the personal. I want art to be a sensual experience." - Kelly Borsheim

Since her first painting sale in October 1997 (an oil painting titled Hand Off Knee),
Kelly Borsheim's paintings, drawings, and bronze and stone sculpture are now in private
collections throughout the United States and Europe, and in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

Kelly also worked as a street painter (pastels and chalks) in Florence, Italy for about four years. Her image-filled book "My Life as a Street Painter in Florence, Italy" is available on Amazon.com in many countries around the world, as well as directly from her studios.